CONTENTS
EPPING FOREST OUTDOOR GROUP
On 9th February 2007 we travelled to Windermere by coach from Victoria. From the start the weather was bad, with driving snow as we approached Birmingham for a short stop-over in the dismal Digbeth coach-station. The coach-station felt like such a place does in the middle of the night - 'though it was only a February afternoon. We were a tired group when we arrived late in the evening to check in at Shearing's Windermere Hotel.
Orrest Head, Windermere - 10th February 2007
However, tiredness is only relative, for when we awoke the following morning, some were relieved and some disappointed to find the snow had gone! The weather wasn't too bad, and after the usual hearty breakfast - with plenty of porridge for many - we set off on a walk to Ambleside, taking in Wansfell Pike on the way. Now, a few of us had determined that we weren't perhaps that capable of a winter 8 or 9 mile walk, and thought that we'd possibly cut it short on the Wansfell bit. We never did, and continued walking uphill as the snow blew in from behind us. Committed, we reached the top - with a nice covering of snow on the ground and us. Suffice it to say that we ALL got down the other side - albeit with a lot of bum-sliding as a means of locomotion.
Troutbeck - 10 February 2007
"That's where we're going" .... the view from Near Orrest 
On Wansfell Pike.. ready for the descent... Photo by Val. S.
The descent of Wansfell Photo by Val. S. 
The easy bit - after Wansfell - and heading to Ambleside
A certain relief on the boat back to Windermere
The day after our Wansfell expediton, we took the ferry across Lake Windermere to Far Sawrey. After the snows of yesterday, we were hardly prepared to have to very soon strip outer layers off as we sweated uphill from the lake! It was warm - relatively - for February, and humid. The sail-boats on Windermere below were brilliant white against the blue - a complete contrast to yesterday. The walk was varied, with hills, trees, country lanes and fields. A stop for lunch at a pub, then lanes down to the lake and a walk along the shore- in the footsteps of the Swallows and the Amazons perhaps.
Lake Windermere - 11th February 2007
A brief stop near Far Sawrey, above Lake Windermere 
...another lunch break 
Waiting for the ferry, rather than the bus, back to Windermere ...........................................
